Crash drink-driver fell over after she arrived at care home to start work

Drink-driving breathalyser.

Jon Cooper

Published:13:20Tuesday 24 April 2018

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A crash-drink driver had consumed so much alcohol that when she got to work at a care home she fell face down on the ground.

Kirsty Attenborough, 30, of Maple Drive, Creswell, had been spotted driving eratically and damaged her vehicle before she parked up at Hollybank Nursing Home, Creswell, and collapsed into the gravel, a court heard.

“She was struggling to get up the hill and the vehicle was smoking and rubber could be smelled by the male witness.

“He heard a loud bang and saw the vehicle parked at an angle at Hollybank Nursing Home with damage.”

The witness found the defendant sat in the driver’s seat, according to Mrs Bickley, and he tried to speak to her but her speech was slurred and she was struggling to get her words out.

Mrs Bickley added that the witness took Attenborough’s car keys and tried to get her out of the vehicle but she fell face first into the gravel.

Police revealed that Attenborough failed a roadside breath test with a high reading and when she was taken into custody she could not stand or walk so she had to be taken to Chesterfield Royal Hospital for a blood test.

Attenborough registered 270milligrams of alcohol in her blood two-and-a-half hours after the police’s original call-out. The legal limit is 80milligrams.

The defendant told police she had been due to start work at 3pm at the nursing home and that she uses her partner’s car so she does not have to walk home.

She admitted that she had drunk a medium-sized bottle of vodka on that same afternoon but she does not drink regularly and she is not alcohol-dependent and she thought she had been tipsy.

Attenborough, who is of previous good character, pleaded guilty to exceeding the alcohol drink-drive limit after the incident on December 2, last year.

The court raised concerns because Attenborough had been involved in an accident and had been driving on the wrong side of the road with children nearby as she had been going to work.